Month: April 2017

If you are like me, you bought your Brother scanner printer because you wanted a decent scanner and perhaps the odd black and white print.¬† Nothing more.¬† That’s why you didn’t pay a lot.

Well, built into the ‘cheap printer’ business model at Brother is a nasty little trick which says ‘When their colour cartridge runs out (which is really small) then stop printer from printing *everything* – including black and white – even though it’s full!”

Now that is just dirty.

I turned off colour printing on computer and it still refused to print with some bogus message like ‘cannot maintain print quality’.¬† Really?¬† I have a fully black and white cartridge and I’m not printing colour and it cannot maintain print quality?¬† I call BS, Brother.

Thankfully, the solution was super, duper crazy easy.¬† Thanks very much to these guys here

Just take some electricians tape (don’t bother with sharpie markers or other ideas as I tried other stuff on my desk) and get some small scissors (or exacto knife probably easier and more accurate) and cut some black electricians tape so that the tape *perfectly* covers the plastic clear window.

Note: you can see a small gap in this photo example which you should avoid.¬† Aim for 100% coverage of the window or it may not work.¬† I tried one with a slightly larger gap and it failed (their lasers are very accurate!)

Once the lasers kick in and hit the tap your screen will show a nice full cartridge and printing in Black and white (or whatever colour you have left) should work.

So you have an ink cartridge and Brother decided that it was empty and you disagree and want to milk it further?¬† One thing that might work for you is to reset the internal page counter.

It’s fairly public understanding that printer companies have tech inside the machines that essentially tell it when it has printed enough and to print no more (so you have to run out and buy another cartridge).¬† The screen will tell you ‘can’t maintain print quality’ or ‘cannot print’ or some message that you might not care about.

This post is specifically how to do it on the following models but I will have links to websites that will probably be able to solve your other models too:

MFC-J460DW

MFC-JF480DW

MRC-J485DW

The answer to my question was found tucked away in one reply somewhere on this page and on THIS WEBSITE

Here is the quote:

To enter maintenance mode on the MFC-J480DW, with the printer powered on, press the Settings button followed by *2864
The Settings button will have different names according to where you purchased your printer. To help identify the button: It depicts a wrench and a screw driver.

However!¬† One tiny little detail cost me many hours.¬† It’s important that before you do the above make sure you hit the ‘stop’ button which will clear the ‘ink levels low’ message from the LCD.¬† You can’t do the above steps until the LCD is clear of the warning.

So, here is a more clear list:

clear the screen with the stop/exit button

hit the settings button (wrench)

enter the following 5 keys * 2 8 6 4

use the down arrow until you come to the purge followed by some numbers (the numbers, btw, are your page count -wasted time trying to figure out why mine was different from websites out there, ha)

press 2 7 8 3

I got a ‘cannot detect’ message, and the stop/exit button didn’t work so then I did step 7 and got out

press 9 and then 9 again

machine reboots and page count is clear /purged

You may also get a message that says your colour cartridges are low and your printer stops you printing, even black and white!¬† Don’t worry, I overcame this trick too in THIS POST if you’d like to have a black and white only brother printer (works for me!)

Luke 17: 11-19

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.¬† And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up [their] voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw [them], he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on [his] face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where [are] the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

I was reading this scripture to day and much jumped out.¬† Allow me first to paint the picture that appeared in front of me as I read it a bit like a play-by-play:

There were 10 lepers who were isolated, hurting, sick, down, suffering

9 out of 10 (presumably) were Jews whilst 1 out of 10 (presumably but not written) was a Samaritan – a heathen if you will

Famous Healer Jesus comes nearby and the group of lepers cry out for the benefit of healing

Faith Healer Jesus does not do a show, neither does he lay hands on them, neither does he even say ‘you’re healed’ but simply instructs them to show themselves to the priest to be healed¬† [side point: At this point would a Samaritan have been allowed into the congregation of the Jews to even show himself to the priest?¬† I’d like to know the answer to this question for full revelation on this scene.]

En route to the priest, with the Samaritan with them, they are all physically healed from the horrible sickness of leprosy

*Only* the Samaritan at this point:

1.¬† Turned back towards Jesus

2.¬† Loudly glorified God with no shame

3.¬† Fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus (humility)

4.¬† Gave thanks

The others did… what?¬† Kept walking to the priest?¬† Did they even go to the priest?¬† Did they get what they needed for life on earth and were now happy because they could fit in with the congregation again?¬† How in the world could these 9 keep walking?¬† How could they not run with the Samaritan back in joy and humility and fall on their faces?

My Commentary

They (the 9) were only healed on the outside, not the inside.¬† And, note what Jesus then said to the Samaritan:

He didn’t say “go, catch up to the other 9 who are probably still on their way to the priests and show yourself to the priests’.

No, the Samaritan was complete.¬† Jesus saw that this man, only, was truly healed both inside and outside.¬† He was made *whole* – and it was his faith that made him whole, not his membership in or association with a religious organization.

This also shows you that even through sickness and suffering it is possible that you may not be healed *completely* by God or be made *whole*.

My presumption about the 9 is that they may have gone on to possibly lose their healing, or, face other tribulations by the grace of God that would finally bring them to the place where the Samaritan was: a place of humility and thanksgiving.

The Samaritan (the 1) passed the test.

The 9 failed.

The 1 was made whole.

The 9 were not.

“Arise, go your way [not the way the other 9 are going] as you are healed, my friend.” is my translation of verse 19.

For what good is the healing, really, if the person doesn’t come to a vibrant knowledge of Jesus Himself?¬† As painful as this is to even write, it would be better to continue to suffer in leprosy until death and walk into the throne room of God knowing the true Jesus, than die without Jesus in perfect health.

I know that our loving God does not sit there and enjoy watching us suffer, but I also know that He did not enjoy sitting there watch His only begotten Son suffer on the cross for our sins either.

It may be torment for the parent of a drug addict to stop helping their child financially and watch them suffer so, but for the greater good of their child there is no other way.

The pit of suffering and torment – no matter what kind – seems to be where the human cries out to heaven.

I am torn because I know that God heals and He heals today.

But what good is a physical healing if the person doesn’t change once and for all and believe and be baptized and born again into the new and amazing life in Christ?

I repeat that I am torn because I know that God heals and He heals today.

But I also know that He does *not* heal 100% every time.

There are two camps that most people reside in:

Camp 1: God doesn’t heal today – that was for some other time.

Camp 2: God heals 100% of everyone, every time because it’s God’s will to heal – and if you don’t get healed it’s your faith’s fault.

In Camp 1, you can simply not worry about it and say ‘It’s God’s will’ when someone isn’t healed (and kind of bench the book of Acts) and in Camp 2 you can blame the humans’ lack of faith for the lack of God’s movement in your life.

Both camps are unappealing to me and very unbalanced and I don’t want to be in either of them.

I want to know God, hear his voice and live the exciting life in Christ – whatever that is for me.

I can’t believe I didn’t blog this before but let’s put my regrets aside.

So, you have come to realize that everyone who knows how technology works was right – it’s all spying on you.¬† And, well, you don’t like it but – you don’t know where to start.¬† You feel overwhelmed.¬† Many people have these kind of feelings

I’m too busy to figure this out

I’m afraid to try something new in case something breaks

I’m used to letting ‘geniuses’ fix my tech

I’m too old

Everything is changing to fast

I just want it to work

Ok, these are all normal feelings but let me be crystal clear that none of them are an excuse for letting a creep spy on you.¬† Imagine if a peeping tom had binoculars fixed on your bedroom window. It’s as bad as that or worse so do something today, ok?

Great.¬† Let’s get started.

THE SOCIAL STUFF

This is the most scary stuff.¬† I watch my foolish friends and family amass the precious photos and history of their children (who had no choice in the matter) onto the servers of some very uncool people.¬† What’s most frightening is that 9 out of 10 of these people don’t even know exactly how the technology works.¬† If you are one of those 9, just trust me and start making the better choice for your family with the following alteratives – and bring your friends and family so that you aren’t alone.

Unsafe

Safer Alternative

Where to get it

Quick Notes

Facebook

*Diaspora

https://diasporafoundation.org/

Choose a pod. Sign up. Bring your friends and family. Never go back to facebook. Totally decentralized. Totally your data. You can even import and export all your data!

THE PERIPHERAL STUFF

The first step is to start switching from unsafe ‘peripherals’ to safer ones.¬† These will immediately start helping you relax about change because your operating system will be familiar.¬† It’s kind of like renovating an ensuite washroom before tackling the kitchen.¬† It kind of eases you into this new and safer life. But before we move on to this easy and simple step, please keep in mind that your ultimate goal *must* be to remove all unsafe operating systems from your life.¬† This includes Apple, Microsoft and Android.

But for now, let’s start with taking one bite of the elephant.

Unsafe

Safer Alternative

Where to get it

Quick Notes

Microsoft Office Suite

Libre Office

http://www.libreoffice.org/

Wipes out Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point and more while leaving you with *more* power and features and a great experience.

WhatsApp

Telegram Messenger

https://telegram.org/

Not only open source but feature loaded and works on literally any device as well as even on a web browser.

Kakao Talk

Telegram Messenger

https://telegram.org/

See notes above

Skype

hubl

https://hubl.in/

Browser based. Just allow it to use your mic/camera. Use it on almost any device. Once finished with link, never use it again, or link stays active and you can use it again and again. Multiple people at the same time is also awesome. No file sharing yet but Telegram can do this while on a chat.

Skype

jitsi

https://meet.jit.si/

Have heard good reports that jitsi works well on self-hosting (even safer)

Google Chrome

Firefox

Internet Explorer (or whatever dumb new name they give to the same garbage)

Firefox

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Most people use this anyways, but just in case you are really lost... Also, the plugins you can add to this make browsing so much more awesome.

Outlook Express

Thunderbird

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Just awesome and then you just plug in Enigmail plugin for total email encryption.

icloud

Nextcloud

https://nextcloud.com/

You can either buy their box or install it on an old computer as a server... or put it on shared hosting. Pure sweetness in cloud file stuff.

Adobe Photoshop

GIMP

https://www.gimp.org/

Unbelievably robust and easy to use. Edit photos like a pro or as a pro and never turn back.

Missed any??

Let me know!

EMAIL

So now we have the stuff out of the way, we need to deal with email by itself.

Most people, sadly, use some of the most compromising and horrific spying machines around.¬† Some of these might look familiar:

hotmail

gmail

yahoo

live

outlook

etc

First of all, putting technology aside, your email address actually speaks volumes about who you are as a person.¬† For more on this, read my post here about that.¬† But, on top of that, it’s not secure having your email on someone’s computer.¬† For just a second ask yourself this concerning question: Why would a company pay to give you free email?¬† Answer: to market to you or worse. So in order to market to you they must have all your data.¬† Haven’t you ever wondered why advertisements start to look very, very similar to what you are doing in your life?¬† Yeah.¬† That’s because of that (and other things)

For email, if you are technologically savvy enough you ‘could’ run your own email server which would be the safest possible solution.¬† However, it’s not that easy.¬† Maybe your friend could set it up, but if you don’t have such a friend, what is best is to stop supporting these companies who prey on people like this and move to something cooler.¬† It’s really *not* that expensive to pay for email.¬† Here is what you do:

buy a domain like ‘your name’

choose something cool that goes before it like ‘me’ or ‘name’

call a company that sells domains and email (preferably in a country like Canada) and force their tech support to set it up.

Then you would have an email like this:

me@yourname.ca

If it’s not available there are countless Top Level Domains (TLDs) that you can choose from and certainly one of these will be waiting for you.¬† And it’s fun!

Just make sure that when you buy your domain and email that you have enough memory.¬† Most of them have some kind of unlimited plan for memory so go with that.¬† Also, make sure that it has IMAP support – I would be shocked if they didn’t but this is the email service you want.¬† You should budget about $15/year for the domain and another $?? for email and storage.¬† I have been really happy with Canadian Web Hosting for service and pricing if I can make a quick plug.¬† For about $5.00/month to have safe email per person is pretty reasonable.¬† If you have another reason to have a website, you could simply get unlimited email through your website hosting plan as well.¬† This requires a little more skill but it’s not that hard.¬† A friend who runs their own website should be happy to set it up for you once you purchase.¬† I would do this for my friends…

Now you’ve got your email and your other ‘stuff’ more secure, the last discussion is the big one.

THE OPERATING SYSTEM

You need to start planning to get rid of your current operating system which is probably either Apple/mac or Microsoft Windows.¬† These companies have compromised many things at your expense of both dollars and privacy.¬† They do not deserve your business nor are there endless reasons to stay with them.¬† For 99% of people they could switch 100% to a safer option and be completely happy.¬† There are a very small number of people in niche markets like print and design and perhaps medicine where the entire industry has forced everyone to communicate with these corrupted systems.¬† In these cases you may need to keep one computer for ‘work only’ and your ‘personal life’ should be immediately moved to a safer option.

I recommend that everyone immediately switch their desktop and laptops to Ubuntu

Ubuntu is the safest, fastest, most supported and most loved free and open source operating system in the world.¬† Switching to Ubuntu operating system is not that difficult but it does require enough comfort and skill.¬† It’s easy enough to learn, but if you do have access to an ubuntu community near you, you should join that community or start one yourself.

Soon Ubuntu will be ready to go for mobile devices too.¬† This is another reason why it would be wise to consider Ubuntu.

A NEW AND SAFER INTERNET

Another important thing that we will all need to work on quickly is to create a new and community-owned internet.¬† This is a bigger picture discussion but please also start preparing your mind for ‘mesh networks‘.¬† I will post more here as I learn and this will be my new focus for 2017 and 2018 because what good is all this safe stuff if we are using them on unsafe platforms owned by people who have agendas that we cannot control?